The Latest in ShowBiz News

It’s Upfronts Week in NYC and all the TV networks are making their annual pitches to sponsors with the intention of obtaining millions of dollars to advertise on their programming. We speak with journalist/blogger Laura Martinez, about how Univision and Telemundo are trying to adapt to the demographic growth of US born Latinos, if we’re ready for English-language novelas and why the next CEO of either network needs to be a woman. Then Mike Sargent joins us to review Deadpool 2 and why he thinks it’s better than the original – from its diversity down to it’s humor.Read More

Culture pundit Mike Sargent joins the show to help us discuss “Avengers: Infiniti War” and how it needs to be watched to maximize its experience, then we talk about Childish Gambino‘s “This Is America” music video with over 65M already, a review of Gabrielle Union‘s “Breaking In”. Is it like a Lifetime movie or a nice surprise? And an interruption that detoured the whole conversation onto the topic of spam/robo calls.Read More

This week we speak with triple threat star and freshly minted Tony nominee Ariana DeBose who is currently one of the three stars of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. We discuss the intense vocal preparation in becoming The Queen of Disco, why the show cast women in male roles, equal pay, pansexuality and Hispanic identity on Broadway. Then I chat with Zetna Fuentes, a Latina TV director who has directed some of the biggest shows currently on television – Marvel’s “Jessica Jones,” NBC’s “This Is Us,” ABC’s “Scandal” and Amazon’s “BOSCH” to mention just a few. We discuss why there are so few Latina directors in tv and film and what can be done to fix it, plus, how she uses her Hispanic heritage to influence her tv work.Read More

The 2018 Tony Awards nominations have been announced and four Latinx’s were nominated – John Leguizamo, Ariana DeBose, Lindsay Mendez and Chita Rivera (Lifetime Achievement).

Leading the list with 12 nominations are the new musicals Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants. The 72nd Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, will be held at Radio City Music Hall on June 10. The ceremony will be telecast live on CBS.Read More

Comedian Eugenio Derbez stops by the show to discuss his new movie “Overboard,” but we really talk about his struggles of becoming a star in an industry that has not fully embraced his culture, his accent nor his stories. We unspool why he’s making English-language movies now after a successful career in Spanish, how he overcame the sellout stigma from Mexican peers and why he believes Hollywood is afraid of creating Latino movie stars.Read More

Adrian Martinez and Allison Strong join the show today to chat about going at it in Hollywood as Latinx actors. Adrian is in Amy Schumer’s controversial new film “I Feel Pretty,” out in theaters now. We talked why the movie’s premise has angered some women, if he thinks “beauty”is a fact or an opinion, and his #1 advice for any Latinx actor wanting to break into the business. Allison is a proud Colombian-American actress who has a new movie “The Week Of” coming out on NetflixApril 27thwith Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, plus, she discusses her personal experiences of what acting in Hollywood is like for a bilingual actress; and she reveals the best lesson she learned from Steve Buschemi.Read More

Ecuadorian-American actress and singer Michelle Veintimilla joins us on this episode to discuss her role as the villainess Firefly on FOX’s Gotham series. She has a solid resumé which includes performing on Broadway with legendary icon Chita Rivera, working in film opposite Russell Crowe, Octavia Spencer, and Aaron Paul, as well as TV credits in “Blue Bloods” and “The Goodwife”. She joins me today to talk how she got the part of Firefly, why identifying as Hispanic is crucial in Hollywood and the reasons why she isn’t a fan of telenovelas.Read More

On episode 71 of Highly Relevant, Ben Lopez, Executive Director of NALIP joins us to discuss the rock-bottom depths Hispanic actors have reached in Hollywood. What is the African-American community doing differently than the Hispanic community? Also, Randy Falco, the CEO of Univision, recently announced he’s retiring early. What type of person should replace him? Is it time for a U.S. born Hispanic to run it and should it be a woman? Should they look into doing English-language programming? And we also chat about how NALIP’s whole mission is to help Hispanic creatives break into Hollywood.